Haji Nasrat Khan is somewhere around 78 or 79 years old, even he doesn't know for sure. He has a hard time seeing and requires a wheeled zimmer frame to get around. He suffered a stroke about 15 years ago and has been incapacitated ever since.
For the past 3 and half years he has been a "guest" of the US government in the 21st century gulag that is the camp at Guantánamo Bay. He is now at home in Afghanistan after the US released him last month. He returned to Afghanistan "the same way he had left: blindfolded, handcuffed and with his swollen half-paralysed legs chained to the floor". His lawyer was notified of his release, by email, only after he had left Guantánamo.
He had been arrested along with his son, who remains in custody, and originally imprisoned at Bagram air base where his crutch was taken away and the guards would ferry him to the loo on a cart.
At one point during his imprisonment he scoffed at guards who has asked how he was:
For the past 3 and half years he has been a "guest" of the US government in the 21st century gulag that is the camp at Guantánamo Bay. He is now at home in Afghanistan after the US released him last month. He returned to Afghanistan "the same way he had left: blindfolded, handcuffed and with his swollen half-paralysed legs chained to the floor". His lawyer was notified of his release, by email, only after he had left Guantánamo.
He had been arrested along with his son, who remains in custody, and originally imprisoned at Bagram air base where his crutch was taken away and the guards would ferry him to the loo on a cart.
At one point during his imprisonment he scoffed at guards who has asked how he was:
"I told them, 'you are very stupid'," he recalled. "I am on the floor in shackles and you are in a chair. I am paralysed but you have tied me like a dog. So why are you asking me how I am?"
One wonders what purpose was served by keeping him in detention. Was it to pressure his son? If so is that not a war crime?
One wonders if Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld or Gonzales could truly look him in the eye and say that what was done to him has made the world any safer. Of course they will never have to do that as they remain isolated from the process relying on others to be the tools of their repression.
One also wonders why it took nearly four years to decide he was "innocent". Whatever his age and however pitiful his life may seem to western eyes I am certain that every day is precious to him. I hope he enjoys his remaining years.
I am sorry for what my country did to him and what it continues to do to many other, undoubtedly innocent, men and boys.
One wonders if Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld or Gonzales could truly look him in the eye and say that what was done to him has made the world any safer. Of course they will never have to do that as they remain isolated from the process relying on others to be the tools of their repression.
One also wonders why it took nearly four years to decide he was "innocent". Whatever his age and however pitiful his life may seem to western eyes I am certain that every day is precious to him. I hope he enjoys his remaining years.
I am sorry for what my country did to him and what it continues to do to many other, undoubtedly innocent, men and boys.
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